How to Leverage Data Storytelling for Payroll and HR: An Expert View

HR and payroll teams have long been the operational backbone of organizations, quietly operating in the background to ensure timely payments, company policy adherence, employee engagement, and compliance with labor, tax, and compensation laws. But in a business landscape that is increasingly shaped by data and AI, their role is undergoing a profound transformation and gaining new strategic significance.

In a business environment that is driven by a growing urge to be more strategic and visible to senior management, knowing how to translate achievements and operational excellence into business impact isn’t just a nice-to-have for payroll and HR, but a necessity. That’s where data storytelling comes in.

Going beyond simple reports on numbers and metrics, data storytelling is about crafting an insight-driven narrative that resonates and demonstrates the value of HR and payroll to the C-suite by connecting the dots between data, analytics, and the kind of human insights that only people operations have access to.

To explore how HR and payroll professionals can use data storytelling to advocate for their function and amplify their influence, we spoke with Adena White, Ph.D., Market Insights Manager at HiBob. Read on to discover why data storytelling is becoming a strategic must-have for HR and payroll leaders, how to translate metrics into business value, and how platforms like HiBob and Lano turn raw data into meaningful insights.

Using data to inform business decisions has been a key topic for payroll and HR for a long time. With the rise of AI, this already hot topic has been pushed even more to the front. So much so that leveraging data and using smart tools to process it is no longer optional—data and AI are table stakes for modern HR and payroll.

“If you're not looking at data or using AI to enhance and optimize your work, you're at risk of falling behind. You'll struggle to stay relevant, particularly if the goal is to position payroll as a more strategic function,” Adena states.

Yet data alone isn’t enough to drive impact. It needs effective data storytelling to bridge the gap between insights and executive action. “Onboarding a system or installing software doesn’t automatically make you strategic. Data storytelling is the necessary piece that helps you turn data into a compelling narrative. There’s no number on a slide that’s going to convince your CEO. You need to pair it with a story that resonates,” she explains.

Compared to other business functions, HR and payroll are at a unique intersection, combining quantitative data and analytics with real people insights. For instance, insights from exit interviews can reveal why top performers are leaving the company, such as feeling invisible or unimpactful in their role.

“As much as you examine data on retention, turnover, attrition, or burnout, the numbers alone don’t provide the full human perspective behind what’s really happening. Data storytelling is so powerful because it's putting these elements together. That’s how it helps you build an impactful story that drives action."

"There’s no number on a slide that’s going to convince your CEO. You need to pair it with a story that resonates."

Adena White, Ph.D.

Market Insights Manager at HiBob

HR and payroll leaders track a wide range of metrics in their day-to-day operations. But with so many data points available, which ones truly matter when it comes to building a persuasive case? Adena offers a surprising perspective: “It's none of the HR and payroll metrics as they are. They all need to be translated into the language of the business, the language of the CEO.”

In her approach to data storytelling, every HR and payroll metric can—and should—map back to one of three core business goals:

• Lowering costs (e.g., minimizing payroll errors or turnover)

• Increasing revenue (e.g., retaining top performers)

• Accelerating speed to revenue (e.g., efficient hiring and onboarding)

“Before presenting any metrics to the C-suite, HR and payroll leaders need to consider the executive perspective and connect their metrics to the overall success of the business,” Adena advises. Her main point: HR and payroll professionals often come from a very different focus. While concepts like employee engagement are clearly important within HR and payroll, their value might not be immediately obvious to the executive team.

"Before presenting any metrics to the C-suite, HR and payroll leaders need to consider the executive perspective and connect their metrics to the overall success of the business."

Adena White, Ph.D.

Market Insights Manager at HiBob

That’s the theory behind data storytelling in payroll and HR. But what does it look like in practice? How can HR and payroll professionals move from measuring mere metrics to telling a compelling story of impact? Let’s dive into two real-world examples, one from HR and one from payroll.

Moving from Payroll Accuracy to Strategic Risk Mitigation and Cost Savings

Payroll accuracy is one of the most important metrics for a business’s payroll operations. However, a high accuracy rate is not a goal in itself. The real value of an accurate payroll lies in the fact that high accuracy means avoiding fines, fees, legal action, and employee dissatisfaction.

“Payroll teams don’t get credit when payroll is accurate. When payroll professionals do a good job and nothing goes wrong, it’s quiet. But if they use data storytelling, they can demonstrate their impact,” Adena notes.

To achieve this, they need to compare internal error rates to industry benchmarks, quantify the savings, and translate them into meaningful business outcomes. “The calculated savings can be translated into how that value could be reinvested in the business. For instance, payroll leaders could highlight how, thanks to their proficiency, the company saved the equivalent of the salaries of three full-time engineers or the cost of the company’s annual offsite.”

"When payroll professionals do a good job and nothing goes wrong, it’s quiet. But if they use data storytelling, they can demonstrate their impact."

Adena White, Ph.D.

Market Insights Manager at HiBob

Highlighting the Value of Employee Retention by Putting a Price Tag on Employee Turnover

A big part of the daily work in HR is making sure employees stay motivated, satisfied, engaged, and connected to the company to foster retention. While not a goal in itself, employee retention enables enormous cost savings. As Adena highlights, “It’s not just retention for retention’s sake. It’s about preventing the productivity dip and the extremely high cost of employee turnover.”

According to research from Gallup, replacing leaders and managers can cost organizations up to 200% of the employee’s salary. For technical professionals, the figure is around 80%, and for frontline employees approximately 40%. The reason for these high costs? Losing high performers disrupts business continuity, which impacts productivity, breaks workflows, and stalls progress.

“Everything HR does around engagement, wellness, and the overall employee value proposition feeds into retention. But to demonstrate the value of this effort, HR professionals need to tie it to broader business goals. Why should a business care about retaining top performers? Because it drives revenue, ensures continuity, and saves money by avoiding the massive cost of turnover. That’s the real business impact of retention.”

And it doesn’t end there. Quantifying the savings from reduced turnover can also help create a business case for launching new initiatives that further boost engagement and satisfaction. So why aren’t more HR and payroll professionals doing this?

“It’s the connection and the time. When you’re busy just doing the job, you don’t always go that final mile to persuade the C-suite of your impact. You might not even see that as part of your role. But in reality, showcasing your value to leadership is a critical part of the job,” Adena emphasizes.

Effective data storytelling in HR and payroll doesn’t just happen. Instead, organizations must overcome three crucial hurdles before they can leverage data for creating a business-relevant story. These challenges are:

• Access: Overcoming disparate systems and siloed data

• Analysis:  Knowing what matters, how to extract it, and how to interpret it

• Communication: Leveraging these insights to craft and share a strategic storyline

“Access and analysis can be solved with platforms. All of these AI platforms and systems that are coming out now can help create a Single Source of Truth by aggregating and standardizing the data and then use automations to connect it to dashboards for analysis.”

Even if not exactly simple, this challenge is often a one-time fix, achievable through the right technology and setup. The communication hurdle, however, requires more than tools and automation.

“The hardest part isn’t getting the data. It’s knowing how to communicate it in a way that spurs action. It’s knowing what questions you should be asking, what stories to pull out of the data, and how to craft them into that compelling narrative that you can bring to the C-suite. This part requires a mindset shift and a little bit of personal skills and effort,” Adena says.

"The hardest part isn’t getting the data. It’s knowing how to communicate it in a way that spurs action."

Adena White, Ph.D.

Market Insights Manager at HiBob

Modern payroll and HR tools solve two major hurdles in the path of effective data storytelling, which are gaining access to clean, consolidated data and having the tools to analyze that data meaningfully. This becomes even more crucial in multinational organizations, where data is often scattered across different tools, systems, legal entities, and service providers.

Global HR and payroll platforms like HiBob and Lano support better data access by providing a unified global view of all relevant data paired with clear dashboards and analytics for real-time insights. This unified approach ensures consistency across teams to establish a common baseline, which Adena identifies as a key enabler.

“The problem these platforms solve is that they bring all your systems into a Single Source of Truth. Everyone who accesses the platform sees the same numbers, can run the same analyses, view the same dashboards, and benefit from automated workflows running in the background.”

The key to unlocking the full potential of global HR and payroll data? Seamless integration between both systems to enable continuous data exchange and data accuracy across platforms. A good example is the integration between HiBob and Lano, which streamlines the transfer of employee information from HR to payroll. By automating what is typically a manual and error-prone process, the integration helps reduce administrative burden and ensures data remains current and reliable.

"Having your data in order is the baseline. The real strategic advantage lies in the agility and scalability it enables."

Adena White, Ph.D.

Market Insights Manager at HiBob

The significance of modern platforms like HiBob and Lano goes far beyond addressing the two major hurdles to effective data storytelling in payroll and HR. “Having your data in order is the baseline. The real strategic advantage lies in the agility and scalability it enables,” Adena notes.

For her, agility through better data access comes down to two key benefits. First, having clean, consolidated data allows for faster insights and quicker responses to business queries. Second, it empowers organizations to adapt more quickly to market shifts. “In a world that is constantly changing, one of the most strategic things a business can be right now is agile and ready to change.”

As for scalability, Adena highlights the importance of being able to grow operations confidently, without concerns about data integrity, accuracy, or compliance. “The ability to scale quickly and confidently, knowing that everything is set up properly, that your workflows are not going to break, and that you can maintain accuracy and data privacy is key for businesses.”

Adena White, Ph.D. is a researcher specializing in the intersection of technology and employee wellbeing. At HiBob, she evaluates HR technology solutions, workforce analytics, and market trends to uncover best practices that enhance workplace experiences and business success. Dr. White holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from Haifa University, an MBA from Ben-Gurion University, and an M.A. thesis in gender pay equality from Tel Aviv University. Passionate about the intersection of work and happiness, she explores how technology can create more fulfilling and effective workplaces.

HiBob is transforming how modern businesses manage their people with Bob—its award-winning, AI-powered HR platform. Designed for distributed workforces and fast-moving companies, Bob helps streamline HR, payroll, and finance operations. Over 4,400 companies worldwide trust Bob to improve employee engagement, simplify operations, and drive business growth. Learn more at www.hibob.com.